BASEBALL: The Vandy First Base coach

Here’s the deal with all the lip that went on both ways between Ole Miss and Vanderbilt players and at least one coach in Game 1.

This goes back at some level to when these two played in Oxford. There were some comments then from Vanderbilt first base coach Erik Bakich.

Today, when Vandy second baseman Alex Feinberg, the two-hole hitter, tapped back to Justin Cryer for the third out of the top of the sixth, Cryer trotted to first and lobbed under-handed to Matt Smith.

Cryer’s take was that the Vanderbilt parties, Feinberg and Bakich, may have believed that he was staring down Feinberg.

Bakich, the Vanderbilt assistant coach, made comments to Matt Smith after the play.

Benches never cleared, punches were never thrown. But Bakich did get a verbal reprimand from home plate umpire Paul Guillie.

Bakich, apparently, swore at the Ole Miss players.

“He (Bakich) said some inappropriate things, I said some inappropriate things, and Cryer got his two cents in,” Smith said. “Before the out was even made he was dogging Cryer. The gist of it was something about don’t stare his runner down. It’s one thing for players, but for an assistant coach to do that is out of line.”

Cryer downplayed the incident.

“It’s the SEC tournament in front of thousands of people. Players show their emotion, and coaches show their emotion. It’s not a big deal.”

The incident ended with both head coaches, Ole Miss’ Mike Bianco and Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin, receiving instructions from Guillie at home plate.